


Like a prey with tiger eyes

by FanFicReader01



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Ending, Body Horror, F/M, Ficlet, Flower Symbolism, Flowers, Hanahaki Disease, One-Sided Attraction, Unhealthy Obsession, Unrequited Love, nicholai is a creepy fuck, nicholai what are feelings ginovaef
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23564725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicReader01/pseuds/FanFicReader01
Summary: Goddamn woman is going to bring everyone, including him, in danger. And of course the youngest mercenary likes her. Heck, Carlos is probably love smitten by her. Typically  foolish young people: they still let themselves be guided by irrational emotions.Something Nicholai can’t even remember to have, if he had them to begin with.
Relationships: Nicholai Ginovaef | Nikolai Zinoviev/Jill Valentine
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	Like a prey with tiger eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Tiger Lily's stand for wealth and pride. (according to some site about flower language lol)  
> Thought that was fitting for a bastard like Nicholai

She’s a liability. She’s too soft, weak hearted. That’s his first impression of her. Jill Valentine. One of the few survivors of the Mansion Accident. And now the only surviving S.T.A.R.S. member in the city. Nicholai is sure she won’t make it out alive. Especially not after he’s learned that the Tyrant is after her. Goddamn woman is going to bring everyone, including him, in danger. And of course the youngest mercenary likes her. Heck, Carlos is probably love smitten by her. Typically foolish young people: they still let themselves be guided by irrational emotions.

Something Nicholai can’t even remember to have, _if_ he had them to begin with. Times in the army had hardened him, taught him how to survive and only to rely on himself. Sure, teamwork could come in handy during missions, but in the end you only had yourself to trust. Mission Raccoon City is no different from those times.

***

Via the radio Nicholai stays up to date with the other mercenaries. Miss Valentine is making herself useful in the city _and_ actually succeeding in it. Although he isn’t going to show it, he is pleasantly surprised. It amuses him, in some way, to know that a prey-like creature like Jill is still fighting a futile fight.

He decides then and there, to actually enjoy this show and see how long she’ll last. He coughs, his throat suddenly feeling itchy. He brushes it off as a result of the dense air and the stench of rotting corpses everywhere.

***

When he meets her again in the train after she battled that Tyrant, he lets himself slip a little and congratulates her on learning faster than he’d expected. He’s met with a tough glance. For a prey, she has the eyes of a tiger. They hold eye contact and Nicholai hopes she’ll be the one to look away first. But an intrusive cough, makes him to turn away first. By the time he looks back at her, she’s focusing on the other Russian who now steps inside the train.

***

It somewhat gives him an adrenaline boost when he closes the cabin between them. He swears the anger in her eyes are hotter than the flames behind her. For a moment, he thinks he can feel his lungs catch fire as well. Much time to linger in the adrenaline rush of his betrayal is not there. He has to run if he wants to make it out alive.

Once he makes sure he’s in a safe spot, Nicholai lowers his weapons and wipes away some sweat and dirt off his brow. For now, he should rest a bit. After some short sleep, he’ll resume his work and intel gathering. Before that, he barricades all possible escape routs with furniture and then thuds down to quickly write a report in his logbook. He thinks about the priceless face of both his ex-colleague and miss Valentine herself. A part of him assumes they would not have survived. On the other hand, he hopes the enigmatic woman can surprise him once more with her seemingly unbeatable will to survive. He plays the scenario in his head a few times, as if rewinding a tape. It thrills him.

Not short after he closes his eyes, he falls asleep and into a dream. Nicholai usually has no dreams, despite the atrocities he’s seen and committed himself. But this time, he dreams of soft skin, hidden underneath a layer of dirt and blood and blue eyes that could rival his own pale ones, framed by silky brown hair.

Nicholai wakes up due to the sudden lack of air. Something’s in his throat. A parasite? He ferociously coughs and coughs. He puts a hand in front of his mouth and when he removes it, he can barely believe what he’s seeing. Besides droplets of blood he finds a few wrinkled-up petals. Bright orange in colour, with black freckles on them. Of all the things the mercenary has witnessed in his life, coughing up flowers was not part of that endless list.

Somewhere in the back of his head, he knows there’s a disease, known for the symptoms he’s experiencing now. Angry and not sure what to think of it all, he clenches his fist, wrinkling the petals in his hand. This is ridiculous. Is this city’s madness getting a hold of his mind after all?

***

The mercenary finds her on the other side of the gate. Her fight with the Nemesis must have been pretty amazing. Cars are still burning, the serious environmental damage clearly caused by that monster are still fresh. He regrets not having found her right in the action. When he gets closer to the gate, the woman spasms a few times, coughing up blood, vomit and foam before going limp.

Nicholai smirks like he always does when life gives him exactly what he wants. Or when he sees prey finally being caught in the spider’s web.

“Interesting… You’ve done me a big favour, Miss Valentine.”

As he walks away, he is almost disappointed he won’t be seeing her anymore. She had put up a pretty good fight but there is an end to everything.

***

It shouldn’t be shocking to him to find out that somehow the prey had overcome its infection and was still kicking. There’s a certain… relief for him. With crossed arms he watches as the woman noses around in the underground research facility. Of course, he could let her reach him but that’d be too boring, too easy. No, he wants to let this game drag on a little bit longer. Over and over, Jill had proven to him that she wouldn’t go down without a fight, so he’s sure she can take an extra beating, putting in a bit more effort to get what she wants.

Once the mercenary can’t be heard over the intercom anymore, he thuds down on a chair and clutches his chest. As of late, his lungs have been playing tricks on him. It’s as if they’re filled with something. Something light, yet present enough for him to have trouble breathing. His dry cough has worsened too but Nicholai continues telling himself it’s just his imagination. Even someone like him can get affected by the curse of this dying city. It just… does things to people.

***

He is terribly disappointed when the woman, who is now literally hanging on the edge of her fragile life, still cares about the city’s fate when it was already etched in stone at the very beginning. She should know better. She has seen the undead, the atrocities Raccoon City now harbours. How does she still have hope for this place? Nobody will survive, at least if Nicholai has a say in it.

He watches her struggle to hang onto the ledge.

He feels like a cat playing with a tiny mouse wriggling between his claws. Having the upper hand like this makes him euphoric and forget about the growing ball inside his lungs.

***

Looking into her eyes, when Nicholai leaves her at the claws of the Nemesis for a final time, heats up the fire inside him. Never had he seen such fierce, hateful look before. She looks like a tiger hunted for sport and ready to slash its hunter’s throat. He is sure that if Miss Valentine had that chance and was stripped off her own too good-doer morals, she’d do it. That thought somehow excites him. Would they both have more time, he’s convinced only that glare of hers, could skin him alive. But now it’s time for him to leave this wretched city. He’s had enough.

***

Once he’s on the roof where the chopper’s at, Nicholai needs a moment to catch his literal breath. Something’s stinging inside his throat. It’s an itch he can’t scratch. He curses himself for being weak. How can some imaginary disease, a silly disease made up by angsty teens get to him like that? He spews out more orange petals. The leaves seem to be bigger than before. Another rough cough and he vomits out a green twig. Still, he can’t believe this is happening to him. How is it possible? Even if this shitty disease is real, how did he even catch it? Yes, in the past he might’ve had some quick shags with women, but besides stilling his carnal desires with a willing body, there was never a real yearning or loving involved. No, this couldn’t be-, it was completely unacceptable.

“There you are, you piece of shit!” the deep voice of the younger mercenary is suddenly heard.

Nicholai recomposes himself in time and dodges Carlos’ bullets. The smaller man doesn’t waste time to run toward him and throw himself onto him. Despite his lungs feeling like they’re bursting at the seams, Nicholai holds the upper hand. With a well landed hit against Carlos’ temple, he renders him unconscious. The Russian huffs and wipes away some petals from his lips. He goes to the other side of the helicopter to prepare for take-off.

Another coughing attack washes over him and this time he coughs up an entire flower. Well, he’ll be damned but he is going to get out of here no matter what.

The worried voice of Jill reaches his ears. Just when he feels another flower reach his tongue, he harshly swallows the thing. He isn’t going to let her ruin his escape.

The longer he has his eyes on her, the larger the ball inside his lungs becomes. Oh it’s definitely pushing against its confinement that are Nicholai’s lungs. He tries to subdue it by pure willpower but it’s difficult. By now, he realises there’s an entire fucking bouquet blooming inside of him. He can no longer deny it. But he can try to stop it. As soon as he gets out of this shithole, he’ll go to a surgeon to have the growth removed.

Carlos has gotten up again and kicks him over before he can put a bullet between the Jill’s eyes.

The following fight is even harder than before and once the other mercenary has got him in a chokehold, the roles are reversed. Now it is the oddly charming Miss Valentine who has her gun aimed at him. Finally he admits she’s quite stunning looking. No wonder that fool Carlos fell for her from the beginning.

Nicholai smugly grins, baring his teeth, tainted by blood and orange flower residue.

“You can’t shoot me,” he taunts. For a second his heart stutters when he feels a well-aimed bullet pierce through his side. In pain, he drops to the ground after Carlos releases him.

By the time the opposite side has gotten into the helicopter, Nicholai’s a sputtering mess. And still, he tries to uphold his cool demeanour even when vomiting up one Tiger Lily after another. Ridiculous.

A plea for his life, disguised as one final bargain escapes his torn lips, only to be shut down harshly by that woman.

As they make eye contact, Nicholai starts to realise something but he can’t put it into a coherent string of words. Her. Jill Valentine. It’s too late. When he looks down at his wound, he sees the flowers are excessively flowing out of him, watered by his own blood. Then he senses a thick stem crawl its way out of his mouth, scraping the already sore throat completely open. Out of his control, tears fill his eyes as he watches countless Lilies sprout out of his crumbling body. When the missiles are launched, his vision is already overgrown by beautiful Tiger Lilies.

**Author's Note:**

> So...Nicholai succumbed to something worse than the T-virus


End file.
